Abolish Nuclear Weapons Research Articles

Democratising Nuclear Governance: The Role of African Civil Society in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

Democratising Nuclear Governance: The Role of African Civil Society in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

Nuclear Disarmament in Latin America: Unveiling the Impact of Humanitarian Perspectives and Advocacy Campaigns on the TPNW

This essay explores the evolution of the humanitarian disarmament initiative toward the TPNW and the links and influences from Latin America civil society efforts. Shifting away from traditional military objectives, humanitarian disarmament integrates civil society organizations, prioritizes Human Security over State security, and emphasizes the humanitarian impact of weapons. The paper examines key campaigns, including the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), the Control Arms Campaign, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), elucidating their advocacy strategies. It highlights the unique features of humanitarian disarmament, stressing obligations beyond elimination, addressing challenges in multilateral forums, and presenting Latin America’s distinct approach. The essay concludes by discussing the status of nuclear disarmament in the region, emphasizing universalization efforts and contextual challenges, including the rise of alt-right movements and the region’s historical commitment to nuclear disarmament.

Nuclear-free NYC: How New Yorkers are disarming the legacies of the Manhattan Project

ABSTRACT In 2021, New York City passed some of the most progressive nuclear disarmament legislation of any major city in the United States, supported by local activists from the New York Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (NYCAN). In this essay, two of the people behind this effort share some details of their success with local government as an example of what others can do to bring nuclear abolitionist activism home. They also give a sense of New York’s long history as a nuclear city—and as a locus of action for disarmament.

Reducing the Risks of Nuclear War— the Role of Health Professionals

Reducing the Risks of Nuclear War— the Role of Health Professionals

Opinion: How fear of nuclear winter has helped save the world, so far

Abstract. The direct effects of nuclear war would be horrific, with blasts, fires, and radiation killing and injuring many people. But in 1983, United States and Soviet Union scientists showed that a nuclear war could also produce a nuclear winter, with catastrophic consequences for global food supplies for people far removed from the conflict. Smoke from fires ignited by nuclear weapons exploded on cities and industrial targets would block out sunlight, causing dark, cold, and dry surface conditions, producing a nuclear winter, with surface temperatures below freezing even in summer for years. Nuclear winter theory helped to end the nuclear arms race in the 1980s and helped to produce the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, for which the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Because awareness of nuclear winter is now widespread, nuclear nations have so far not used nuclear weapons. But the mere existence of nuclear weapons means that they can be used, by unstable leaders, accidently from technical malfunctions, such as in computers and sensors, due to human error, or by terrorists. Because they cannot be used without the danger of escalation (resulting in a global humanitarian catastrophe), because of recent threats to use them by Russia, and because nuclear deterrence doctrines of all nuclear-armed states are based on the capability and readiness to use nuclear weapons, it is even more urgent for scientists to study these issues, to broadly communicate their results, and to work for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Reducing the risks of nuclear war to humanity

Reducing the risks of nuclear war to humanity

От политики убеждения к дипломатии: уроки международной кампании по запрещению ядерного оружия

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has become known for its active engagement in the drafting and promotion of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The success of the campaign is related to the fact that not only other anti-nuclear non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but also a number of state figures and diplomats have joined the campaign. ICAN is a "transnational advocacy network" (TAN) that has managed to engage a significant pool of state and non-state stakeholders (actors). This paper aims to explore the ICAN phenomenon and identify the features of this transnational advocacy network. The study is based on documents and materials drawn from the official ICAN website, working papers from the NPT Review Conferences, as well as interviews with representatives of anti-nuclear NGOs. The novelty of the study consists in the fact that a new interpretation of the concept of "transnational advocacy network" was introduced into Russian academic discourse and the main instruments and principles of TAN were identified on the basis of the ICAN example. The research of ICAN was carried out according to three bullet-points: (1) analysis of NGO activities in the NPT negotiation process; (2) identification of the features of ICAN as a TAN, the main trends and methods of work; (3) problems and limitations of ICAN. A hallmark of today's TANs is that they combine advocacy and examination, allowing such coalitions to work successfully with international organizations and states. ICAN is an interesting case study because there has been a convergence of interests between a number of states and anti-nuclear NGOs. However, the question still remains how long will it be able to keep functioning in the TAN format and continue to frame the agenda of the NPT Conferences? The drive to ban nuclear weapons, and then to lobby for the signing and ratification of the NPT, demonstrated that ICAN had moved from public activity to direct diplomacy. Nevertheless, there is reason to assume that ICAN and its coordinating role in the NPT negotiation process may become less important as the focus and interests of states shift back to public outreach activities.

Voices of Nagasaki after 75 Years

ABSTRACT Soon after the second atomic bombing in 1945, hibakusha in Nagasaki saw the dawn of the Cold War, along with the Soviet Union’s possession of atomic bombs. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 created a real fear of nuclear war capable of destroying all of humanity. The Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968 were a good sign of hope. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987, also succeeded in reducing nuclear warheads in the 1990s. However, we have also seen nuclear deterrence strategies of the nuclear powers firmly established. The Cold War ended in 1989, but its nuclear deterrence policies have persisted. Unfortunately, the NPT regime has gradually begun to weaken since 2010. Hibakusha and nongovernmental organizations such as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons have stood firmly in strong solidarity and in 2017, succeeded in establishing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force on 22 January 2021. Even now, hibakusha continue to suffer lifelong radiation-induced cancers and leukemia. Hibakusha must face a new stage in the abolition of nuclear weapons under a dangerous divide between NPT supporters and TPNW promoters. To overcome this divide, we need to increase the power of civil society around the world.

Policy Approaches Addressing the Ongoing Humanitarian and Environmental Consequences of Nuclear Weapons: A Commentary

AbstractThe 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) not only bans nuclear weapons, it obligates its states parties to engage in assisting victims and remediating contaminated environments (Articles 6 and 7). As states and civil society consider the best methods to implement these provisions, it is important to take stock and review existing policy approaches addressing the ongoing humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons. This practitioner commentary, written by members of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its advocacy for the TPNW, reviews existing programs of victim assistance and environmental remediation. It highlights key considerations for policy makers seeking to improve on the existing mechanisms.

Organizações internacionais não-governamentais no sistema de governança global: a ICAN e o tratado sobre a proibição de armas nucleares

El objetivo general de este artículo es demostrar el proceso por el cual una Organización Internacional No Gubernamental (OING), a partir del proceso de desarrollo de una pregunta marco en la agenda internacional fue capaz de influenciar resultados en una Organización Internacional. Específicamente, se buscó comprender el papel desempeñado por la ICAN (en inglés International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) en la aprobación del Tratado sobre Prohibición de Armas Nucleares (TPAN) por la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas el 17 de julio de 2017. Siendo este el objetivo, en términos metodológicos, se adoptó el process-tracing, habiendo sido el mecanismo causal construido y guiado a partir del marco teórico propuesto por Jutta Joachim (2007). Finalmente, se espera contribuir a la literatura en Relaciones Internacionales al proponer un estudio centrado en los procesos de negociación en medio del sistema de gobernanza global, específicamente, en lo que concierne al papel de las OING y su interrelación con otros actores de relevancia internacional.

Making Your Own Luck: A Meaningful Career From Being Open to Opportunities

AbstractThe most important work I have done in my career is to warn the world about the dangers of nuclear weapons. While the Soviet‐American nuclear arms race has ended, and the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is on its way to ratification, there is still much more work to do. The smoke from fires ignited by nuclear weapons would block out the Sun, cooling Earth's surface. The United States and Russia can still produce a nuclear winter, killing most crops and producing a global famine. I have worked on this because I have been open to new opportunities, have used my scientific expertise to apply to important problems, and am sensitive to issues that present dangers to society. Having spent more than $20 million of the public's money on my research, I feel an obligation to warn society of dangers I discover, and focus on that communication as an intimate part of my scientific efforts. And nuclear winter research has been very good to me. It led to meeting Sherri West (my wife), Carl Sagan, and Fidel Castro; to getting my current job at Rutgers; and to being a participant in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Taking advantage of chance encounters at the Fall American Geophysical Union Meetings has been an important factor in this tale.

Towards “global zero”: the role of the Holy See in the campaign on nuclear disarmament

On 7 July 2017 at the UN headquarters in New York the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted, the first multilateral legally-binding instrument for nuclear disarmament negotiated in the last twenty years. The very signing of the Treaty must be seen as an extraordinary achievement because it represents a historic step in the seven decades long debate on nuclear weapons. One of the most significant achievements of the decade-long campaign is the engagement of civil society and non-state actors to such a degree that it was recognized through the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). The crucial supporter of the campaign and a powerful moral voice in the discussion has been that of Pope Francis and the Holy See’s representatives. While the Holy See’s engagement in the problem of disarmament has been an essential element of Catholic Social Teaching for many decades, never before has a pope condemned the possession of nuclear weapons so clearly and so firmly. This article aims to present the teaching and involvement of the Holy See in the process of introducing and developing a concept of nuclear disarmament in which civil society and non-state opponents of the nuclear weapons stand against the most powerful states of the contemporary world.

The Resistance Movement of Aboriginal People To Fight Against The Plans For A Nuclear Waste Dump In South Australia

Aborigine is the indigenous people of Australia who have attempted to oppose the proposal for South Australia to host an international nuclear dump. Even though the rights of indigenous people have been recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the treatment they receive are not in accordance with the standard of living. The object of this this paper is to examine the struggle of Aboriginal Australia as indigenous people who seek to ensure their basic rights to clean environment from nuclear waste by using normative juridical method. The results of the paper show that Aboriginal people have commenced their struggle by the formation of global movement in the form of local campaign (Kupa Piti Kungka Juta), Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA), in collaboration with Amnesty International and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). All efforts are made to pressure the Australian government not to consider South Australia as a nuclear waste disposal site. This is because nuclear waste can have an impact on public health and environmental damage, trigger nuclear war, and become a threat to the land of Aboriginal people.

The ‘-Pacific’ part of ‘Asia-Pacific’: Oceanic diplomacy in the 2017 treaty for the prohibition of nuclear weapons

ABSTRACTThe 2017 Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was negotiated at the UN over the objections of nuclear-armed and -allied states and established a global categorical ban on nuclear weapons framed in terms of humanitarianism, human rights and environmentalism. The TPNW also placed ‘positive obligations’ on states to assist victims of nuclear weapons use and testing and remediate contaminated environments. States and NGOs from the Pacific region advocated for a strong treaty text, particularly its positive obligations. They were influenced by the region’s history as a site of nuclear weapons testing in Marshall Islands, Kiribati and French Polynesia/Te Ao Maohi; the 1985 South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone’s precedent; and earlier diplomatic efforts and activism linking denuclearization with decolonization. In doing so, Pacific and other formerly colonized states flipped the ‘standard of civilization’ script embedded in humanitarian disarmament law and applied it to their former colonizers. The paper demonstrates the agency of small states—the ‘-Pacific’ part of ‘Asia-Pacific’—in multilateral policymaking on peace and security, often overlooked in international relations scholarship. It draws on my participant observation in the Nobel Peace Prize-winning advocacy of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) during the TPNW negotiations.

Negotiating the UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons and the role of ICAN

ABSTRACTThe Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is historic not only in its substance but in the process of its development. It was led by states free from nuclear weapons; based on humanitarian evidence and imperatives; involved civil society, hibakusha and survivors of nuclear testing to a degree that is unprecedented in the nuclear field; and is the first nuclear disarmament treaty negotiated through the UN General Assembly, with the process proving both effective and efficient, despite fierce opposition from a number of nuclear-armed states, whose lack of commitment to nuclear disarmament was made very plain. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) became the main civil society partner for governments leading and supporting the ‘Humanitarian Initiative’ which resulted in the negotiations. ICAN’s principles, strategy and work are discussed in the context of the ‘stigmatise – prohibit – eliminate’ approach which has proven effective for other inhumane and indiscriminate weapons.

Obstacles to understanding the emergence and significance of the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons

ABSTRACTThis article examines the emergence of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons from a critical perspective, including how and to what degree efforts to alter states’ framing of nuclear weapons was a factor in the treaty's emergence and negotiation. It examines the so-called humanitarian initiative on the consequences of nuclear weapons, the activities of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and the roles played by transnational institutions like the United Nations and the Red Cross Movement. In view of this case, lessons and limits on transnational advocacy network models of norm emergence are highlighted. In order to contribute to the process of better understanding the emergence and significance of the prohibition treaty process based on research, some areas are identified in which evidence gathering and theorizing are needed.

How Transnational Civil Society Realized the Ban Treaty: An Interview with Beatrice Fihn

ABSTRACTThe International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. ICAN is a global coalition of non-governmental organizations in over 100 countries and was honored for its efforts to advance the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Beatrice Fihn has been the Executive Director of ICAN, since 2014. During her Nobel Peace Prize speech, she said, “Together we have brought democracy to disarmament and are reshaping international law.” This interview took place in Nagasaki City on 14 January 2018. She expressed her views on the role of transnational civil society and discussed the democratization of the disarmament process more broadly.

The Treaty On The Prohibition Of Nuclear Weapons:, Wishful Thinking And Nuclear Deterrence Reality

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 6, 2017 for its efforts to achieve a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) adopted in July 2017 is the first clear and unequivocal attempt to prohibit nuclear weapons in international law. The TPNW aims to outlaw nuclear weapons in the same way international law has already outlawed other weapons of mass destruction, such as biological and chemical weapons. This landmark achievement in nuclear disarmament could have hardly come at a better time. The world is again faced with potential nuclear war with mounting tensions in the Korean Peninsula(and elsewhere) that may trigger the use of nuclear weapons and release their unmatched destructive potential. Nuclear disarmament in good faith has been a continuous legal obligation for nuclear states for decades. However, in the meantime, the number of nuclear states has increased and modernization programs have resulted in more destructive nuclear weapons. This paper explores the recent developments in international law on nuclear disarmament by comparing the existing framework provided by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the emerging one in the TPNW. The adoption of the TPNW and its potential entry into force may represent an important avenue to achieve a nuclear free world. However, at the same time, it may diminish efforts to comply with the NPT and remain a wishful de lege ferenda without the participation of nuclear-armed states. In terms of structure, introductory remarks are provided in section I; section II explores the main features of the NPT as the cornerstone of the existing legal framework; section III explores the emerging TPNW and its key features; section IV explores the relationship between the NPT and the TPNW through the dichotomy of wishful thinking and nuclear deterrence reality; and finally, section V provides concluding remarks.

The Discursive Turn Arrives in Turtle Bay: The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’ Operationalization of CriticalIRTheories

AbstractThe International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has aimed to reenergize global civil society activism on nuclear weapons through a discursive strategy, borrowing self‐consciously from critical and post‐positivist international relations (IR) theories.ICANaims to generate a new disarmament discourse that establishes nuclear weapons as inherently inhumane. Alongside the state‐led Humanitarian Initiative,ICANcampaigners are helping to reshape the conversation at certain international meetings on nuclear weapons. They have helped to contest the dominance of national security narratives and force even the nuclear‐armed states to address the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. In supporting a reframing of the conversation, they have opened nuclear disarmament policy making to new voices. However, as with the transmission of many ideas from one arena to another – in this case from academia to global policy making forums – there is a translation process asICANcampaigners selectively adopt from post‐positivistIRto meet their political goals. It is possible that this translation of critical theorizing into the setting of multilateral forums has necessitated reducing the potency of the disruptive critique of the original ideas.

The Humanitarian Initiative on Nuclear Weapons: An Introduction to Global Policy's Special Section

AbstractThe dominant paradigm of international relations theory has long seen influence over nuclear arsenals as the preserve of presidents, premiers and generals of the world's great powers, not underfunded activists, feminist campaigners, radical nuns or even diplomats of small states. The approach of this special section could not be more different. In fact, we have intentionally curated a collection of articles that try to ‘de‐center’ the academic conversation about nuclear weapons. The inspiration for our approach comes from the Humanitarian Initiative on Nuclear Weapons, which since its emergence after the 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non‐Proliferation Treaty, has dramatically reshaped the diplomatic discussions on nuclear disarmament, led by small states and middle powers. The shift in discourse has been accelerated by revitalized civil society action, represented by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a global NGO coalition, as well as renewed calls for disarmament from religious leaders – most notably Pope Francis. This special section, written from the perspective of scholars and practitioners associated with the Humanitarian Initiative, examines its dimensions and its potential impact on global policy making.